Why Barbara Boxer and her ilk are killing health care reform
It is time to tell the truth about why the Democrats failed to pass their own version of Obamacare. It had nothing to do with Republicans.
I am against Obamacare, but my concern is that I am not going to sit by and let Republicans take an ounce of blame for liberal uselessness.
Barbara Boxer and her ilk killed health care reform.
The truth is simple. I finally stated this last week, and although it deals with an issue I prefer to avoid, it is unavoidable for the health care discussion.
It is all about the A-word.
The only thing the left cares about is abortion. Liberal women have blinders on, and liberal Jewish women do not know a single other issue exists. Barbara Boxer is the trifecta.
Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak has language that keeps abortion from being part of a comprehensive plan. Right now abortion is considered an elective procedure.
I have publicly stated my neutrality on the issue. When a tough bill comes up, the easiest way to deal with the abortion issue is to maintain the status quo. I am not taking a pro-choice or pro-life position. I am taking a “deal with it separately” position.
On the issue of abortion alone, I am not wedded to Barbara Boxer or Bart Stupak. What I am looking at is which person is trying to change something. The Stupak language keeps the status quo. Barbara Boxer opposes this. She wants to increase abortion access.
This matters because she is willing to let the entire health care reform process go down in flames over abortion. The Democrats have the votes to pass a bill with zero support from Republicans. Yet pro-life Democrats will not accept new abortion expansion.
Barbara Boxer and her ilk cannot let this go. This is her greedy nature.
Getting bills passed is about consensus. Barabara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are not about consensus. They are about rigid ideological feminist hysteria. Whether the issue is tax cuts or the War on Terror, they are obsessed with the abortion issue. This is why Boxer has been in the Senate 18 years and has virtually zero accomplishments.
If the Democrats were smart (they would be Republicans, based on their results), they would go to Boxer and say that getting a bill passed with many things the left likes has to be good enough, and that abortion can be revisited later.
The Democrats know that if they cannot get health care passed in 2010, it will never happen the way they want it. Who could be so selfish to torpedo an entire 30 to 40 years of work on an issue that divides Democrats?
Barbara Boxer and her ilk.
Barbara Boxer is a disaster of a human being, and she is dragging down an entire political party along with the Pelosiraptor.
How utterly delightful.
I would worry that this could be prevented, but it would require President Obama to grow a spine. That will not happen.
Barbara Boxer will rally the angry hard-left women of the world. She will claim a moral victory.
As for the millions off people without health care, Barbara Boxer cares nothing about them. Unless they are having an abortion, any other medical procedure is too boring for her to deal with.
Republicans should just sit back and let Boxer be Boxer. Then everything will work out fine.
eric
March 1st, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Well said…
March 1st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Warren Buffett would scrap health care bill.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33693.html
Warren Buffett it doesn’t address bringing down the cost first and until that is solved nothing else about health insurance reform should be addressed…is this his way of giving the Democrats Political Cover?
This sounds a lot like what the Republicans have been calling for Incremental reform.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:35 pm
The Progressive Wave Has Crested Now They Are Just Trying To Tread Water.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2010/02/salmons-progressives-down-by-seaside.html
March 1st, 2010 at 2:52 pm
How a neoconservative young guy who works in the financial sector could be so blithely naive about money and politics is beyond me.
The troubles in the Democratic party over healthcare reform revolve around one thing and one thing only: MONEY. You’d think someone working in the financial sector would know that much.
Take Joe Lieberman (yeah, I know he’s an “Independent,” but he caucuses with the Dems and he’s been a huge obstacle to reform):
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00000616
Look at his state:
http://www.jobbankusa.com/jobs/connecticut_ct/job_employment_largest_employers.html
Notice a trend here?
Look at this: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/special-interest-money-means-longer.html
To think abortion has anything real to do with the obstacles to healthcare reform is comically naive at best. If you want to know why ANYTHING really happens in Washington, as Deep Throat famously said, “Follow the money.” Otherwise, you’re childishly wasting your time.
JMJ
March 1st, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Look, these bills do nothing to change the status quo on abortion. When you look at the Dems who use the “abortion” argument against reform, they are all big recipients of insurance industry largesse. Just follow the moeny. This whole “abortion” thing, as usual, is a canard.
JMJ
March 1st, 2010 at 8:10 pm
” is beyond me.’
yup
Theres actually people who dont care about money, they call themselves liberals.
Whats confusing is that these same people have no regard for human ife
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:35 am
Dam Jers you said something I can agree with. You are right abortion is a canard, abortion has nothing to do with this so called reform. In fact this so called reform has nothing to do with reform. It reforms nothng, it improves nothing. Nancy is determined to pass this at the cost of every one’s political career, so she has said. Obama is determined to pass this at the cost of his own political career, so he has said. Putting the bureauocrats at the department of health and human services in charge of our medical services is a goal that must be achieved in order to gain control over the American people. Think about, if the Dems gain 100% control of our medical care then the Dems have us by the throat, literally.
Yes I know there is lot more to it and you can argue to your heart’s content, but this is what keeps coming to the top.
Toma
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:54 am
I suppose if Liberals were logical, a strong argument could be made that money is an obstacle to Health Care Reform. However, as our financially astute host intimated, if Liberals were logical, they would be Republicans or Libertarians…
In fairness to Jersey, some Democrats actually do understand the steep costs, but the ones pushing this Reform have turned a blind eye to costs and care only about control - and although I have similar beliefs as Eric about abortion, it is the ultimate form of control.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Eagle and Toma are hitting me with a couple of cynical compliments here.
First of all, this doesn’t have anything to do with “control of the American people.” You guys have got to get that paranoid dellerium out of your heads. This is the kind of nonsense we hear from the Right every time a Democrat got elected into office since FDR. The American people have no more or less been controlled yet. It’s comic-bookish childishness.
Now, do you want to talk like grown-ups about costs and logic?
What healthcare reform is really about is this: The fastest growing expenditure in the federal budget is Medicare (and Medicaid, but that’s much smaller). It now consumes almost 20% of the fedreal budget, but it’s inflating faster than the GDP is growing, and since it’s funded with a flat tax, that means, by definition, the funding can not match the inflation. Healthcare, in general, has had the highest inflation rate of any significant sector of the economy. This is UNSUSTAINABLE. SOMETHING has to be done.
Here’s a couple of analyses from reputable sources:
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Insights/centers/center-for-health-solutions/health-care-reform/health-care-reform-memo/article/ef8d3965b8df4210VgnVCM200000bb42f00aRCRD.htm
http://www.ncpa.org/speech/medicare-now-and-in-the-future
(The second one’s a little old, but still holds true)
You can try to address malpractice issues, and that will help doctors and hospitals a lot, but it won’t do much to address the overall healthcare cost problem. But you have one big problem: the states. The federal government may not be able to change much about the way states do things unless the federal government offers something better to the states than what they’re doing now and then mandates the states follow certain rules if they want that carrot. No matter how you look at that, that means the ferderal government would have to develope a new program, regulations, and bureaucracy to manage that. So if you want universal “tort reform,” then you’d better expect all that comes with it.
The same goes for interstate insurance. You have to get State A to accept insurance from State B that may or may not meet State A’s requirements. You get them to accept this, you’re going to have to offer something to State A to make it worth their while. Again, more programs, regulations, and bureacracy - and mandates. The other problem with interstate insurance is that it could create a ‘race to the bottom” in which the cheapest, lousiest insurance companies swallow up the whole market, leaving patients and providers high and dry, while non-patient consumers think they’re getting a bargain. Be careful what you wish for!
I haven’t heard one Republican offer a REALISTIC way of offering these two reforms. They just offer the sound bites: “Tort Reform!” “InterstaTe insurance!” But no substance.
So, why don’t you guys actually try learning about what you’re blindly critiquing and then come back with some substantive opinions, instead of goofy teabagger ranting like “Obama’s takin’ over my healthcare!!!”
JMJ
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Why are my comments getting moded?
JMJ
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:27 am
Jersey, You love to jump to conclusions, generalize, and tell everyone how stupid, naive, comic-bookish, and ignernt they are. You do a quick google/bing/ask search, scan a few key points, and become an instant expert on every subject. Good for you - it takes a creative mind to process information from various sources and quickly use this information to make arguments…but rather than continuing down a credible logic trail, you typically divert down a liberalized method of selling the sizzle and not the steak… You are the one offering sound bytes. Who said “Obama’s takin’ over my healthcare?” I said abortion is a form of control, and it is. By allowing people to arbitrarily abort children, the government is giving tacit approval for actions without consequences. To wit: irresponsible sex CAN and DOES lead to pregnancy… The primary purpose of sex is not for self gratification - it’s to make babies. The reason sex is gratifiying is so people will do it, not vice versa…but that’s an entirely different argument. You want me to pay for an abortion? That’s control. Worse yet, you will argue that “it will cost that much more to have unwanted children”…which is pure BS. If you don’t want children, quit having irresponsible sex. No brainer.
Actions without consequences…I buy a cell phone, computer, high speed internet access, late model car, ipod, air conditioning, house phone, Television, cable, camera….and then I want my neighbor, who by hard work, connections, or luck makes more money than me to pay for my health care? Worse yet, I am already subsidizing half the population. A typical married man with wife and two kids can work for $24,000 a year and pay about $500 federal income tax, then get several thousand back…AND you want me to pay for his health insurance? I call that control.
…and since “Teabagging” has more to do with testicles than it does with ranting, I wonder what the left’s fascination with it is…
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:33 pm
I’m trying to reply to you, Eagle, but Eric’s site just isn’t working right anymore.
JMJ
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Darn. Still can’t post it./
March 4th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Jersey, He has the Thought Police providing cover for me!! No rebuttals allowed… call me Sean Hannity…if I don’t like what you say, simply hang up on you and go off on a tirade…catch you on the next post.